


Question 4: Hinami

by amuk



Series: interview with a ghoul [4]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Awkwardness, Family, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Issues, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-06 23:12:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12828153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amuk/pseuds/amuk
Summary: She gave a smile, and he knew it would be heartbreak when she died.--Hinami, Kaneki, Haise





	Question 4: Hinami

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: you’re in the right place at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done. sometimes that’s enough.
> 
> A/N: I haven’t really caught up with the manga after it started the ‘save Hina’ arc. So pardon any canon divergences.

 

“How are you?” Haise asked through the glass. It was a strange sight, a strange fact to know that they needed this barrier.

 

The girl in front of him looked like she should be in school right now, not sitting on death row.

 

“I’m fine,” Hina replied, smiling. She patted the books stacked beside her. “Thank you for the books.”

 

“It’s...it’s nothing,” Haise stumbled over his words, still not sure how to talk to her.

 

Not sure why he was doing this. Only, the boy inside him, he would never have recovered if she’d died that time.

 

Even now, he could only catch glimpses from Kaneki. Nothing more, just fragments of feelings.

 

It wasn’t enough to explain why he was still sitting here once a month. She belonged to a past that was never his.

 

And soon, her future would no longer exist either.

 

“Did you bring more?” she asked, curiously, breaking his thoughts.

 

He cracked a smile. She asked the same question every time. “The guards will swap the books later, just return whatever you’re done with. You’re a quick reader.”

 

“They’re good books,” she replied, eagerly. “They’re so interesting—I really liked the mystery ones with the cat detective.”

 

“That’s good.” He couldn’t really claim credit for them, most books he had were from Arima or Akira. “I liked the _Goat Egg_ more myself.”

 

“That one…” Hina frowned. “It was a little….dark...I didn’t like it that much.”

 

“It is a little,” Haise admitted, scratching his cheek. “But it really made me think.”

 

Hina frowned, doubtfully. “Really? I guess I’ll try to finish it then…”

 

Haise chuckled, shaking his head. “You don’t have to read it if you don’t like it.”

 

“But you liked it...so I have to try…”

 

“Is it hard to read?” He wasn’t sure what education she had, if any. Did ghouls go to school? Did they stay home? He never really thought of it before. “Some of the kanji characters are difficult to understand. I can teach you, if you need help.”

 

“It’s fine! My brother taught me.” She smiled fondly at him and his smile dropped. She wasn’t really seeing him now, but Kaneki instead. A ghost in a ghost. “I can do it now.”

 

Even that smile, that reassurance, none of it was for him. He felt paper thin, stretched out.

 

“I’m…” Haise looked away, disquieted. “I’m not your brother.”

 

“...I know.” Her words were quiet, almost too low to hear. “I just...forget sometimes.”

 

“And…” This part was harder. He couldn’t look at her while he spoke, keeping his gaze fixed on the wall beside him. “He won’t come to see you.”

 

“Oh.” Hina looked at him now, the smile slipping from her face. “He...he won’t?”

 

“He…” Haise swallowed, watching her from the corner of his eyes. “He can’t.”

 

“...Oh, ok.” She almost seemed to collapse on herself, for a moment. “That’s...that’s…”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“It’s not your fault.” She shook her head, wiping the tears from her eyes.

 

“Still, I’m sorry.”

 

She smiled now, a watery mess. “You’re very much like my brother. Just as kind as he was. Thank you for telling me.”

 

Haise couldn’t reply. It would be heartbreak, he knew, when she died.

 

And not just for Kaneki this time.


End file.
